The decision by US President Donald Trump to abandon the United States’ participation in the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA) was widely anticipated on the strength of his repeated negative comments about the deal. He had also recently appointed John Bolton as his national security adviser and Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State. Both of those men were known to hold strongly anti-Iran views.

While this budget does contain some evidence of forward thinking: there is a plan for building things, and for aged care – a disgracefully neglected area of public policy – and for income tax reform if you buy propositions on the never-never – at its core it’s more of the same.

For the Coalition, budgets – apart from the first atrocity in 2014, which was genuinely ideological, a wolf in wolf’s clothing – have all been about surviving until the next one.

This article from 1958... 60 years later and the only thing that has improved is the size of the weapons...

The article on the play "for children" is quite funny, especially when they mention the "Pirates of Mosman Bay"... See http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/24007 to get the full picture... As well as "incentives" to bribe the kids... Lovely. The more unruly they are, the more "incentives" they get... That's the way the world works...